Longinus was introduced into the StarCraft scene in 2006 - when it appeared in the 2006 SKY Proleague, the Pringles MSL and the MBCGame Survivor League. In the second half of 2006, Longinus II was released, fixing balance issues such as natural expansion mineral placements, while also adding a second vespene geyser at the 1, 5, and 9 o'clock positions.

Since then, Longinus has remained a popular map and is still often played in ladders such as iCCup and in special events. Longinus II is considered slightly imbalanced ZvP, as Protoss gets a big advantage with the double gas and easily securable expansions (whereas in Longinus I, the lack of a double gas expansion made it imbalanced in favor of Zerg). While it is balanced in TvP at the professional level, the balance is much worse in ZvT. The fact that it still has somewhat passable statistics in ZvT has largely been attributed to sAviOr; without him the map stands at a grim 11-27 ZvT (29%).

Double Gas Expansions - There are three double Gas expansions on this map, generally Zerg players benefit most from taking these expansions.

High Middle Ground - As is the case with all high middle ground maps, players will desperately try to control the center of the map.

Wallable Natural - Positions 3 and 6 o'clock provide a natural that can be completely walled off from Zerglings by Terran using two Supply Depots and a Barracks. Position 12 provides a wall that is Zealot proof but still allows Marines and Zerglings to pass through. These Zergling proof walls allow for extremely fast expansions of a 14 Command Center or 1 Barracks no Marine Command Center.